Tom Fudge: I moved to California about ten years ago. Soon after I got here, I was in a sound studio reading an afternoon newscast for KPBS radio. After the newscast was done, the station's news director came up to me and asked me why I didn't read the story about the rain we got that day in San Diego. I'd just moved here from the Midwest, and I said to him, “It rained today. So what?”
He said, “When it rains in San Diego, it is news.”
In arid country, rain is news. It's welcome news, and if some predictions are correct, rain may become even rarer, and even more greatly desired than it is today. Studies of tree rings provide a picture of how much precipitation we've gotten in certain years over the past centuries. Those studies show that the past 100 years, which have brought many millions of people to California, have been unusually wet ones. Long droughts are common in the West, and the short history of California's settlement may have given us an unrealistic picture of how much moisture we can expect. Add to that the effects of global warming, and the water shortages we're seeing right now could get much worst.
Guests
- Tim Barnett , research marine physicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography .
- Robert Kunzig, sciencejournalist andauthor of Drying of the West in this month's issue of National Geographic.
